Senior Railcard
The Senior Railcard is an annual card available to people aged 60 and over, which gives discounts on certain types of railway ticket in Britain.
The Railcard has existed in various forms since 1975; the current version is priced at £30.00 and is valid for one year, with a 3-year card available for £70.
During the early 1970s, some of British Rail's Regions offered a series of small, localised travel promotions for people of or near retirement age.
This took the form of a large, thin card (British Rail form number BR 24889A ) with a pre-printed expiry date of 31 March 1976 (so Railcards issued later in 1975 were valid for less than a full year), on which the holder's name, address, pension book number and signature had to be added.
The first APTIS version of the full Railcard (BR 4599/17), with mauve upper and lower bands,B also lasted until 10 January 1988,[7] at which point the following changes were made: security background (miniature repeats of the words "British Rail") was changed from the light green colour seen on most APTIS ticket stock to a dark pink; the upper and lower bands became dark brown; and part of the background was filled with the words "Senior Citizen Railcard" in cursive writing in white.
This applied from any Network SouthEast station either within or outside the Travelcard zonal area, and for Capitalcards valid for any combination of zones.
Online purchase requires registration using a valid e-mail address and password, and a UK passport or driving licence number for identification.
This is left blank if an adult is travelling at full (undiscounted) fare; but if any discount or other special condition applies, a code of up to five letters appears.
[4] At first, up to four children (between 5 and 15 years of age inclusive) could travel per senior citizen, each paying £0.50 irrespective of the length of the journey.
[13] On the APTIS and PORTIS/SPORTIS ticket issuing systems, the status code CHSNC was used to denote a child travelling with a Senior Citizen Railcard holder.
It is more common for local authorities to offer residents the full Railcard at a reduced price (or even free of charge).
British Rail and, later, ATOC have collaborated with various organisations and businesses to offer free or reduced-rate Railcards, sometimes for periods shorter than one year.
The television listings magazine TV Times is known to have offered reduced-rate Railcards to its readers for periods of approximately one month in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1997.
Tickets were issued in bulk at the Harrington Dock agency in Liverpool, as illustrated, and showed a blank "Price".
[17] Free Railcards with short validity periods, designed to attract potential Railcard users who may not have considered buying one, have been given away with jars of Horlicks malted milk powder (spring 1998), on the cover of "Active Life" magazine—a general-interest publication aimed at over-50s[18] (March/April 1998 edition), by the charity Help the Aged (June 1998), and with "Saga Magazine"—similar to "Active Life" magazine, produced by the British organisation Saga (1999–2000).
Some of these have been in restricted geographical areas (or, since privatisation, on certain Train Operating Companies' services), while others have applied across the rail network.
